Archive for January, 2011

Let us help you this year. This will be so easy. Send them an eCreamery Valentine’s Day Ice Cream gift. There are a few ways to do it and you’ll be a Valentine’s Day HERO. Plus, we have some fantastic flavors that we are making especially for Valentine’s Day.

There are a few options when it comes to sending eCreamery for Valentine’s Day. Let us guide you along the ice cream, gelato and sorbetto sampler pack gift choices.

So, they love chocolate but you want to turn it up a notch? The Valentine’s Day Chocolate Lover’s Ice Cream is perfect. You’re getting them chocolate but not like a box of chocolates. You are getting them a cooler filled with chocolate ice creams. Good job, you!

Our new gourmet flavoring line allows you to rule the scoop, even more than before. We’re turning the churning over to you. Our gourmet ice cream flavorings are deliciously compatible with all homemade ice cream machines.

The Four premiere flavors are:

3 Cocoa Bean Chocolate

Vanilla Bean

Buttered Caramel

Tiramisu Cappuccino

So, in addition to being able to purchase these gourmet ice cream flavorings we are also giving you what we think is the World’s Best Ice Cream recipe. Each jar has a very quick and easy recipe on it which makes wonderful ice cream but we wanted to take it one step further and let you in on some of the secrets that the pros use. Follow along below as I make our Tiramisu Cappuccino Ice Cream at home!! The entire project from start to finish officially takes 24-28 hours. I’ve given you directions below on how to occupy all 28 hours but not all of them include ice cream making related tasks.

The World’s Best Ice Cream Recipe

Below, I made Tiramisu Cappuccino but you can use the same method below to make all 4 flavors. Just sub in your favorite!

Most likely the bowl from your at home ice cream maker needs to be frozen. I’ve tried speeding this process along and there is no good way to do it. It needs to be in the freezer for 24 hours. If it’s not, you will never get the ice cream you desire. If you are throwing it in there now, PERFECT! Keep reading. This will give you time to make your ice cream base a day ahead, too! This is called the “The Aged to Perfection World’s Best Ice Cream Base Preferable Solution” you’ll find it below. Let me recap. Put your ice cream machine’s bowl in the freezer. Go ahead and put your Frozen Storage Container for your World’s Best Ice Cream in the freezer as well. Follow the directions below and make your World’s Best Ice Cream Base and put it in the refrigerator, make dinner, drink some wine, eat dinner, watch a tv show, go to bed and sleep for 12 hours. The next day is entirely up to you. Please spend it however you see fit but return to making the World’s Best Ice Cream at about the same time as the day before or a least 24 hours later. I wouldn’t be so picky but I want you to make the World’s Best Ice Cream so I am trying to give you every single tip that I can. You’ll thank me later.

Making your World’s Best Ice Cream Base:

Combine your whole milk and heavy whipping cream in your medium saucepan. Your burner should be somewhere between low to medium. You know your stove better than I do so heat as your heart desires. Please make sure you continually whisk the contents until the temperature has reached 170° Fahrenheit or warm enough to coat the back of a spoon but DO NOT BOIL! Boiled cream is not what we are going for here. A nicely heated creamy milk base is the key. It will allow us to easily incorporate our dry ingredients. Yum!

Keep whisking until thoroughly incorporated. At this point you’ll want to pour your base into a refrigerator safe container. We always, always use a spatula to make sure we scrape every last bit into the next container. That’s potential ice cream your rinsing away if you don’t!!

Cool it Down

From here, you have 2 options.

The Ice Bath Approach aka Burn & Churn:

Remember in the beginning when we talked about the 24 hour thing? If your bowl was already in the freezer before you read that, I grant you permission to use the Ice Bath Approach. This method will cool your base the quickest. Create an ice bath with ice and water in a larger bowl than the one you poured your base into. Submerge the base into the ice bath and refrigerate. It should take about 2 hours to get down to the optimum temperature of 40 degrees. You will then be ready to freeze according to your ice cream machine’s directions. There is another option for the patient at heart, below. Even I can be patient for the World’s Best Ice Cream.

Making an ice bath

Your Ice Cream Base taking an Ice Bath

The Aged to Perfection, World’s Best Ice Cream Base Preferred Method:

Are you going for the World’s Best? If yes, than follow these directions: Cover your ice cream base with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. Now, follow the directions above for what to do for the next 24 hours. When you pull out your Aged to Perfection Ice Cream base it will be separated. You will need to whisk it until it is a cohesive color and mixture.

Aged Ice Cream Base

Whisked and ready to pour ice cream base

The fun part! I have a super fun Candy Apple Green Kitchen Aid Mixer with an Ice Cream Attachment. It helps me make the World’s Best Ice Cream. I’m sure your ice cream machine will be the perfect assistant as well. Turn on your ice cream machine and pour in your World’s Best Ice Cream Base. Again, use your spatula to get every last bit of base into the frozen bowl for churning.

Get your Ice Cream Bowl Ready!

Churnin' Churnin' Ice Cream Love

Now the big question, how long do I churn? The amount of time it will take your ice cream to churn will have to do with the temperature of your bowl, the temperature of your base and your ice cream machine. Churning will probably last between 20 – 30 minutes. The real test will be the consistency of the product. Check out the picture of what to strive for:

Churned and ready to Freeze

Grab your spatula and your Frozen Storage Container for Your Ice Cream from the freezer and transfer your churned World’s Best Ice Cream base into the bowl. Make sure you scrape all of the ice cream off of the ice cream paddle. Set it aside on a plate and lick it clean later. Oh yes, now would be a good time to get in a little taste test.

My Frozen Storage Container for Freezing My Ice Cream

Your churned ice cream should be thick enough that you can stick your spatula in it and it stands on it's own. Get it?

All you’ll have to do now is freeze your ice cream. Pop your churned World’s Best Ice Cream in the freezer, let it harden and then roll it back out and ENJOY!! It should make about 2 pints. Eat it all at once. Just kidding!! Share the love so everyone knows that you make the WORLD’S BEST ICE CREAM!!!!

Our retro looking parlor, complete with lime green tile does make eCreamery the perfect spot for unique photoshoots — not to mention unique ice cream fixes. Not so long ago we had the pleasure of having Marnie & Dave drop in — with their entire wedding party! And since they love ice cream nearly as much as they love each other, we were more than happy to host!

Name of bride & groom: Marnie and Dave Amdor

wedding date: 7/17/10

bride’s favorite flavor: Vanilla ice cream with sprinkles

groom’s favorite flavor: Cookie dough ice cream

Do you have a special memory around ice cream as a couple?

“The day of our wedding we went to eCreamery to take photos. As we and our wedding party came in, there was a table of two men and a woman and they just happened to have some pretty flowers sitting on the table in front of them. The one man, quickly joking said, ‘Bride, bride, excuse me, but what do you think of your centerpieces?’

I responded, by joking in return, telling him, ‘the flowers were hideous and that was not what I had ordered.’

They started laughing and we all had fun playing along. When I got my photos back from the photographer we have great pictures of the “ice cream parlor reception complete with pretend centerpieces.”